Product Review - Fiskars Clear Stamps

My product review is on Fiskars Clear Stamps which cost $12.99 at regular price at JoAnn. JoAnn had a 40% sale on all their papercrafting products including their rubber stamps and like a good shopper, I bought 4 of them as well as the large acrylic block. At 40% off, a set of stamps, which by the way has a lot of stamps, came out to approximately $7.00. In opinion this was an awesome deal.

I love the stamp designs. . .they were very cute and each set contains at least 2 background stamps and left and right side images of the same image, and at least 5 or 6 sentiments. Some of the sets contained at least 10 sentiments in various sizes.

The set also comes with multiple stamps of the same images. The purpose for this is the large acrylic block (sold seperately) is like a template in which you can place the stamps with a particular design in mind and rubber stamp multiple cards with the design template you created. I think this is such a wonderful concept. It's like a printing press.

Here are a few advantages other than what was already described:

• Storage. It takes a very little amount of space to store these unmounted clear stamps. Imagine being able to store a 100 stamps on one shelf. The image is printed on the plastic mat so you can easily put the stamp back on to the mat exactly as it was before you removed it.
• When stamping with clear stamps and clear acrylic blocks stamping is a breeze because you are able to see through the block while stamping and see exactly the placement of the image on your card.

Now the disadvantages:

• Removing and placing the stamp on to the acrylic block can be a hassle. I'm very impatient so doing this extra step is just that. . . an extra step.
• I found that like with any clear rubber stamps, inking of the stamp can be blotchy I believe because of the type of rubber that clear stamps are made of. The ink tends to bead, therefore, if you don't ink the clear stamp really well, the stamped image can appear fuzzy and blurry looking.
• The clear stamp is also thin and a bit soft so if you apply too much pressure when stamping, this smooshes the stamp and this is what also contributes to the fuzzy appearance of the image.

There are advantages and disadvantages but overall, for the price I think it's worth it. The previous card I posted and one of the boxes I created (posted the other day) were created using the clear stamps and I think they turned out pretty good.

I will buy more of them in the future. . .ummmmm, but only when they are on sale or if I have a JoAnn's coupon. Anyway, I never buy anything at JoAnn unless I have a coupon or it's on sale.

Until later. . .